


Progress for the Sake of Progress

by hazelhackley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Gen, Ministry of Magic, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 17:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1313458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelhackley/pseuds/hazelhackley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>50 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Hermione Granger is the Minister of Magic. After her work for the treatment of house-elves, she wished to help Muggles. However, the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy stands in her way. Post-series, established Ron/Hermione. Based on tags by @aproperroman on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Progress for the Sake of Progress

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Give Me That Hogwarts](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/40393) by Scott Tobin. 



“Minister!” Hermione Granger, Minister for Magic, perked up from the piles of papers around her office. Her assistant walked in. 

“You very well could just have dialed me. That phone _is_ working, you know.” 

“But I-“ 

“-don’t know how to use it,” the minister finished for her. “Of course. You might see to that, Susan. We’ve had phone lines for the last decade.” She smiled. “What was it that you wanted to tell me?” 

“You’ve got meetings at eleven with Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, noon with International Magical Cooperation, and one with the Muggle Liaison Office.” 

“Yes, yes, I know that. I’ve got a color coded spell-notification calendar just for this purpose.” Hermione didn’t understand why her assistant was telling her all of this. 

“Well that’s the thing,” Susan dropped her hands in exasperation. “Muggle Liasions don’t want to meet with you now. They say it’s too early to lift the legislation prohibiting spells in front of muggles. Progress for progress’s sake must be discouraged, they say.” 

Hermione pulled on her mass of chestnut curls, frustrated. “This is Umbridge all over again! I thought I was done with that kind of thinking. Ugh! I’ll deal with this. Thank you, Susan.” 

“Thank you, Minister.” Susan left the room as the minister dialed extension 4921. 

“Arthur Weasley, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, how can I help you?” Arthur no longer took to yelling into telephones, thanks to Hermione’s wealth of muggle knowledge in her teens. 

“Hi Mr-Arthur.” Hermione had to correct herself, realizing he was no longer Mr Weasley. “Hi Arthur. This is the Minister. Could we move your department meeting to two pm?” 

“Absolutely, Minister.” Arthur’s words spoke as if she were an authority, but his voice was the same as when he was at The Burrow, when he tinkering on old muggle contraptions, often with Hermione’s help on the weekends. “I thought you were meeting with Muggle Lia-oh. I see! Yes, Minister. Two pm. We’ll be there.” Hermione could almost hear him winking in his voice. The Minister hung up the phone, dialed Muggle Liasions, asking them if they could still meet to work out the fine details of the cancellation of legislation, pretending that they were right. 

Moving the meetings, Hermione still had plenty to do until her noon meeting, namely, working up a draft that both departments would be able to agree upon. 

She picked up a ballpoint pen and began writing. After years of using quills, the comparison of the ink rolled easily under her fingers, with minimal effort. While quills were nice for formal announcements, it made no sense for a day-to-day basis, when refilling one’s ink wasted time as well as the fact that it took up more time just writing with them. 

 

We once said that we would never allow Muggles to know about magic for the fact that they would want it to solve all of their problems. As a Muggleborn, I do not think this is an inherently Muggle trait, rather humankind’s. As I write this draft, I am unlikely to get up to get any reference materials, preferring a simple summoning charm, not even having to get up from my chair. It was the same when I first went to school as well. Ask any Muggle parent whose children were the first of their family to go to wizarding school and they will likely reply that they in fact had more reservations than desires to be in the company of magic. 

 

That time is over. Both worlds can gain from an alliance. As seen in our own ministry, we have cut down drastically on lost time from the installation of telephone lines. My daughter Rose, currently works at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was just telling me the other day how the caretaker Argus Filch finally installed central heating. Every school term she would have to bring piles upon piles of blankets to warm up those cold Scottish winter nights!

 

Of my muggle friends that do know I am a wizard, if anything, they are more curious than demanding about the culture of it all. Hospital visits for simple things such as broken arms could be drastically decreased. Many diseases could be stopped at the caused with this alliance. I propose the Muggle Liasions to work with an entire department in the English Parliament. This will be a long-term project and it will be far from easy, but I believe that this could improve both of our societies if we take direction. 

 

Minister for Magic, 

 

Hermione switched to her big fluffy golden quill to sign her name. 

Hermione Jean Weasley

Taking another piece of parchment from inside her desk, she tapped the initial letter, whispering a charm, lifting a copy of the words she had already written and transporting them onto the fresh sheet of paper. Tapping each, they folded into airplanes. Hermione carefully wrote out the names of the departments and sent them on their way, zooming past Susan. 

Changes in the Ministry of Magic had been slow - many still wrote one line memos with quill and plane rather than the quick update that the instant text messaging system that the Administrative Registration Department had come up with. Some still insisted on wearing robes. While aesthetically pleasing, Hermione agreed, they were incredibly impractical, prohibiting easy movement throughout the underground facility. 

Hours passed, and along with it, at the crack of noon, International Magical Cooperation walked into her office. “Thank you for meeting me, gentlemen.” 

“Minister,” Percy Weasley bowed. 

“Minister,” Draco shook her hand, thanking her for an audience. 

“Thank you, gentlemen. Please, take a seat.” The two men took seats on the plushy lilac chairs provided for them. “What do you think of the changes I’ve made, Mr Weasley?” Hermione addressed him formally, despite the fact that he was her brother-in-law. 

“I don’t think they’re that necessary. Things were getting along quite fine, thank you very much.” 

Draco shot him the look that Hermione recognized well. It was the same one he used to shoot her best friend while they were in school. While they had aged, the glare had certainly not. “You sound _exactly_ like Umbridge, Weasley. We don’t need to be set in our ways. Progress in this case is _not_ for the sake of progress! If you look at the numbers, we are getting loads more done than we did twenty years ago, before all of the muggle teg-tef-“ 

“Technology?” The minister offered.  

“Yes, Minister. True, every mishap that we used to have could be fixed by magic, but we don’t have those problems anymore! No more owl droppings, ink spills, wet robes - we’ve even got _heating_! Even you can’t say no to that, Weasley.” 

“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Mr Malfoy.” Hermione tried not to look proud of the man who once had been on Percy’s side of the fence. “We’ve almost completely gone to a 50:50 split of Muggle to Wizard progressions in the UK. While that’s absolutely splendid, I want to see what we can do for other countries. Both of you, if you could write a report of all the Muggle technology that we are currently utilizing and how we initially implemented it. Obviously, I can’t do much about other countries’ wizarding communities, but we can at least give them our models and if they want to build something off of that, the more the better. Draco, send off owls to the ministers for magic of all those countries. Questions?” 

“No, Minister.” Draco was smiling as if it was Christmas day. He could barely keep from jumping up and down in her office. 

“Thank you very much, gentlemen. See to it.” Hermione returned to the paperwork on her desk while International Magical Co-op left the room. 

The second the door closed, Hermione could hear whoops and hollers from Malfoy. “Oh, I am going to _enjoy_ this.” Malfoy’s pre-disposition to get anything done - no matter the means - had made him a natural in the Ministry. He was one of the hardest workers in his department, due to the fact that it usually involved making others see his way of thinking. 

Hermione laughed as she heard Big Ben above ground ringing for half-noon. “Lunch, finally!” she said to herself. Managing out of her big leather chair, Hermione stood, and left the office, but not before grabbing a small pouch of bronze, gold, and silver coins from her desk drawer, pocketing them. Getting into the lift, she pressed the button marked “A,” zooming to the Atrium floor. Walking across the grey room, marked with a number of fire places, she sauntered towards one, ducked her head, and grabbed a bit of flop powder on the floor. Throwing it to the floor, she clearly spoke “Diagon Alley!”

Seconds later, she was in the bustling market. Hermione walked into The Leaky Cauldron, finding her husband already at the bar. “Hello, dear.” Ron pecked her on the cheek, greeting his wife. “How was work?” 

“Your brother really is a piece of work, you know that?” 

Ron laughed, after taking a large gulp of brandy. “What’d the prat say _this_ time?” 

“That things - quote - were getting along quite fine, thank you very much - end quote. Things have been fine for quite some time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make them _better!”_ She sighed. “I never would have thought that Draco Malfoy would find it easier to see my way than my brother-in-law.” Hannah, the landlady approached them at the counter. 

“Anything for the two of you?” 

“The usual, Hannah. Cheers.” Ron started rummaging through his purple Wizarding Wheezes robes for change, but Hermione stopped him. 

“Ah, ah, ah. Not today.” Hermione pulled out a galleon and Hannah gave her 3 sickles back for change. 

“We’ll have that right out for you.” 

“Cheers,” Hermione thanked Hannah as the land lady turned back to the kitchen. 

“Well, that’s Percy for you.” 

She grimaced, but agreed. “Gonna see your dad for a meeting later this afternoon. This seems to be the day of Weasley meetings.” 

“Been a while since you talked to him at the office. What’s this about?” 

She took a deep breath, nervous. “While a lot of the wizarding world’s completely on board with muggle tech, I think they ought to get some of our inventions as well. I’m going to try and get Muggle Liasions and Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes work with the Muggle Prime Minister.” 

Ron hugged her around the shoulders. “Bloody hell. If you can pull this off - wow. Fingers crossed for you, as always.” 

Hannah approached the counter with two soups in hand. “There y’are. Anything else I can get you?” 

Hermione shook her head and began eating. Ron had already beat her there. While his manners had gotten more civilized after leaving Hogwarts, his appetite had not. The couple finished their meal and Ron walked her to the nearest fireplace. “I know you can do this, ‘Mione. Everything you’ve done so far? Bloody hell, it makes me proud. Now go get ‘em.” He pushed her gently towards the fireplace. She returned to the Ministry within seconds and returned to her office to prepare for the meeting. Clearing off her desk by magic, papers fell neatly into two stacks on either end. 

“Minister?” The telephone on her desk, set to speaker, crackled through. Susan had apparently used Hermione’s lunch break to figure out the phones at last. “Weasley and Chang to see you.” 

She held down the black button to allow her to speak. “Thank you. Send them in.” Hermione let go of the little plastic button and stood. 

“G’Afternoon, Minister.” Arthur Weasley extended a hand to the bushy haired woman, which was getting more frizzy by the minute. 

“Good afternoon, Minister,” Cho Chang followed suit. 

“Good afternoon to you both. Please take a seat.” She motioned to the chairs in front of them, which they promptly sat down in with her invitation. “I take it you got my memo?” 

“Yes, Minister. While I understand where you are coming from, much of my office disagrees with you. Things have been _fine for years,_ is their excuse. They - they say the muggles have gotten along fine without us. We are under no obligation to help them.” Chang stared at the floor, ashamed of her colleagues. It was a bit of a soft spot as her spouse was a Muggle. 

“So did the house elves. It was claimed they were happy. But they didn’t know any other way. And now? After all my work with them, they’ve realized they wanted payment, the same as any wizard. This is the exact same situation. The Muggles - for the most part - don’t realize what kind of situation they are even in!” Hermione sighed, frustrated. “I want the two of your departments to work together to draft a statute for the Wizengamot. I want this to be a law, that we need to work together with the Muggles’ Parliament. While they can’t cast spells, they can at least gain access to our potionsand we could even have wizards for hire. Instead of having to wait all day for the plumber to fix the toilet, the plumber would be able to go instantaneously. In any department such as that for the Muggles, we could have a wizard apparate them to locations to cut down on travel, which will help the overall environmental issues - especially of London.” 

Having two heads of departments that both understood muggles was something that Hermione felt fortunate to have each day. “Normally, I would say deal with the bureaucratic needs, but I want this to happen as soon as possible.” She drilled her fist into the table, emphasizing her point. “Get the draft out, get a general idea of how the Wizengamot will vote, and report back to me.” 

“Yes, Minister,” the two department heads answered in unison. 

“Will there be anything else you need?” Arthur asked. 

“Yes, dinner at mine tonight. Rose’s been missing you something awful.”She grinned at her father-in-law. 

Arthur tried to stay stoic as he answered, “Yes, Minister. Thank you.” The two departed the room. There was no going back now. Things were finally being set in motion. Hermione hadn’t felt this nervous since her days back in the D.A., breaking the Ministry’s ordinations to learn how to defend.

 


End file.
